The Social Network(s)

Who Am I?

That's a rhetorical question.  This isn't about me.  This is about the great world wide web and the lonely, lost people who find themselves in it.

[Profile: Tell Us About Yourself]

Well, Who are you?  Cant figure out what to type?  How can you maximize your personality in order to make yourself more appealing to complete strangers.  "OK, I got it, I'll play it safe." " It's been 2 days, and no one is hitting me up...maybe they don't like my pictures?  [sigh] Why doesn't anyone like me?"

Maybe you haven't struggled with it, but I can honestly say I have, all my life I've struggled with being accepted by people, no matter how nice I was, how many times I let the popular kids cheat off my test, no matter how many video games I had, I never felt accepted, I still don't, don't think I ever will.  I'm fine with that....are you?

"Maybe I should take naked pictures too?"

That's always acceptable, regardless of how unattractive you think your body is, if you begin to put yourself out there like that, you'd be surprised at the number of people who will accept you.  Perhaps thats why people do it.  The lack of being accepted for your true self can cause you to give into unintentional peer pressure.  "OK.  I'm just going to take ONE picture, and see what this person thinks."  Always starts off as 1 picture to 1 person...snowball effect...."Wow, I got new messages and comments on my page!!"...I wonder why?

"I need to take more pictures and change my profile."

Yeah, you're feeling yourself now, went from one profile hit a day, to a hundred.  While your at it, change that profile, you certainly aren't the person you once were when you started this page...its cool to be short with people and random...do it...go! "[typing] 18 (17)....Female...In school....all about my money...hit me up"...yeah, that works...the results are in!!!...a couple of messages from a few perverts, a couple of messages from a few dudes who could very possibly be fake or just wants to have sex...but...who cares?...maybe they read your profile and thought you were interesting?

"[Blushing] they like me"

The picture is painted, the scene is set, you cant disappoint now....keep going, you know guys like to see your boobs, take more pics!  Get a little more riskay!  Noooo, don't just leave it in your My Documents folder, put it where everyone can see!  BUT!  Don't let this new found attention change you.  You're strictly here for entertainment, and because you're bored (also you don't have a job, or you aren't going to school, but, they don't know that)

THE PINNACLE!!

You've done it.  went from being a loser, that no one cares about or shows any attention to, to a somebody, one with "real friends", one with a higher self esteem, one with self confidence and a possible first boyfriend [nudge nudge]

"...What happened?"

Oh yeah, it isn't all peaches and cream up here.  Those girls over there, those are the girls who know they look better than you and will go out of their way to let you know.  "I don't care, haters"  Those dudes over there, they don't like you either, they know you're only popular because you take riskay pics, and those guys laughing with them...those are your male "friends"....."[sigh] people are mean"

"This is the new me..."

Now that you have an established group of friends, some real, some fake.  Here's where you develop an "I don't care" attitude, even toward your real friends, the ones who actually care, the ones you treated like crap because you were too busy soaking up the attention you weren't used to getting, the same friends you'll eventually go back to and try to re-kindle the friendship as if nothing happened, as if you didn't ignore your best friend's true love because one of the popular dudes wanted to meet up with you (which surprisingly was just for sex).  This will be the new you, after a brief hiatus, you're ready to show everyone who you "really" are....who are you really?...you mean you aren't that same girl I fell in love with a few years ago?...what changed?....why the change?

Social Networking

Blackplanet, Myspace, Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter...It's all the same, one always supposedly more promising than the next, it ends up being a big group of people following each other around from site to site.  They are one of our best methods of communication and finding out who people really are, or who they've turned into.  Yes, its real, the internet isnt a portal you fly into when you sit down at your computer/open your laptop/log in via smartphone.  You can fool yourself with idiotic remarks like "Its just the internet, its not serious" or "I'm only here for entertainment, I have a real life" if you want, but there's no denying what is becoming the biggest source of communication since the paper-cups-and-string phones.

A Social Network Observation

The more graphic/rude/"real"/vulgar you are, the more people "like" you.  This really bothers me.  I do feel the person is being themselves, but, with a little extra emphasis.  We're breeding already (well, should be) grown people into a**holes.  Just because it comes off as being "real."  I notice it a lot with both males and females, more with females because, I'm not surfing from site to site looking at guys pages.  For example.  A girl updates her status/makes a new blog post/tweets something, "I want to suck a big **** right now", boom, a bunch of thumbs ups/retweets/reblogs/ likes, whatever, things that we normally say to ourselves, or should keep to ourselves, we just openly share with everyone, I suppose it bothers me because I tend to look at a female differently for being so open about private things, its nice you have friends and they all think you're "real" and all that, but some things can be kept to yourself or between you and your close friends.  That's not giving someone all of you, thats unnecessarily stating whats on your mind.

Wrap Up

I've been nothing but true to everyone I've come across, there are no levels/sides/shades of me, its just me.  Ever notice a lot of entertainers/celebrities always make it known that there are 2 versions of them?, "there's the person you see on TV, and then there's me, the real me"...it shouldn't have to be that way, we shouldn't have to result to showing people one dimension and being accepted for it, only to have to go through a personality crisis just to re-find ourselves.  I'm not saying we shouldn't get lost and we should all know exactly who we are after a certain age, but a lot less people would get lost, if we would just accept people for who they are, and if people would accept themselves for who they are and stand by it.  Love yourself.

Forgive me for making that little short story about a female, I've seen it happen with a lot of females, and this blog was actually inspired by a female that I noticed the change in (shortly before I typed this), it applies to males as well, probably should be worded differently though lol. and as usual, I have more to say on the subject, but, I'm cutting it short (long) lol

Peace and mo Old Navy Fleece